The Dead and the Gone Book Review Final Draft

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
                     In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the main characters are Alex, along with his little sisters, Bri and Julie, are all put in a situation where there is a massive, nation wide blackout and there is a fight for food and survival in New York. Thus, Alex and his sisters have to stick together and ration themselves on food, but even then there is only so many resources they have to live. The only way they can get out of the mess is by leaving New York, but they would need passes for that, which is only for VIPs in New York. They can only rely on hope. There is not only a sense of hope that gives Alex, Bri and Julie have the will to keep on trying to live, but there is also a style that Pfeffer uses that makes the reader think they will all get the usual happy ending in many books. However, just as the reader and Alex think that it will happen, something prevents it and they are in a much worse situation than before. This is shown when Alex sends Bri off to a kind of summer camp that trains her to become a nun. At first, this is for the benefit of all of them, so there will be more food to spare among each of them, but Bri is forced to come back and is in a bad condition.

"Alex recognized it as an inhaler. But Bri wasn't asthmatic.

'The doctor said I have adult on-set asthma,' said Bri. 'I have to stay indoors and not exert myself or get too excited.'"(p.178-179)

       Bri came back with asthma, so now she can't go outside to get her own food, or walk to school and get food, so Alex and Julie have to split their's with Bri, and they don't even get much. After about a month, Bri is running out of cartidges for her inhaler and needs more soon, or else she could die. Alex is then given an offer by a man named Harvey, who trades food for other valuables, to get two passes out of New York, but he wants Julie as payment. For a split second, it seems as though things look better, until Harvey says want he wants, so Alex declines. Then, a few weeks later, Alex is given three passes by a friend of his to go to South Carolina, and Alex, along with Bri and Julie, to the bus that is supposed to pick them up. But the bus has been canceled, and is rescheduled for another two weeks. He can't go with his sisters, since he turns 18, and they don't accept legal adults, and Bri and Julie feel the need to stay since Alex has caught the flu. More events happen, and in the end there is a "happy ending", but it comes at a great price.